By Myra Bean

The Panola County Extension Service will host the annual Private Applicators Certification Training on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

Jimbo Burkhalter, Agricultural Extension Agent IV, will direct the sessions and administer the tests give and required by the Mississippi State Plant Board.

Any agricultural producer, commercial, private, farmer, gardener or horticulturist, who will need to use restricted use pesticides, is required to have a certificate. For the PAT, farmers cannot spray for profit.

Those who want to spray for profit, need to get a commercial certificate, according to Burkhalter.

Both meetings will be held at the Panola County Extension Office in Batesville, located at 245 Eureka St. at 10 a.m. each day. There is a $20 fee charged to receive the training.

Once the producer passes the test with 70 percent, he/she will receive a license which is good for five years. All proceeds go to the State Plant Board, Burkhalter said.

“I give this test once a year. I try to do it before the farmers get in the field because they need to be active to buy the chemicals for the spring crop,” Burkhalter said.

Burkhalter has been employed with the Extension Service since June, 1997. For more information about the training days, call 563-6260.